Fine cast shines as Cape Rep opens season with Sondheim musical

By Barbara Clark

Friday

May 11, 2018 at 1:34 PMMay 14, 2018 at 10:28 AM

“It’s our time, it’s our turn.” These are the words of youth, and of dreams. They’re also part of the signature song that’s central to “Merrily We Roll Along,” Stephen Sondheim’s musical about how those dreams can go awry.

“Merrily,” at the Cape Rep Theatre in Brewster, is one of the lesser known shows in Sondheim’s dramatic oeuvre. After opening on Broadway in 1981, the show closed after only 16 performances, and it was considered a flop at the time. But it’s been revised a number of times since then, notably in 1994, with changes in staging and, along the way, new songs contributed by Sondheim. A 2000 version staged at the West End in London earned an Olivier Award for best musical.

This is Cape Rep’s opening production of the 2018 season, and it’s a crackerjack, crisp with impeccable pacing. As we’ve come to expect, it fulfills the company’s reputation for fine casting.

The play depicts the intertwined lives of three close friends, Frank, Charley and Mary, the paths they’ve chosen at each turning point in their lives and what follows after their choices, as their lives roll not always so merrily along.

So far, it sounds typical. But the real hook of this show, why it twists our feelings around, is that the story is shown in time reverse. Instead of the usual early “Let’s put on a musical” sentiments that ascend to a live-happily-ever-after finale, Sondheim’s story takes on a more melancholy tone, moving backward in time, so we see right away how things turned out, and then go back to witness just how it all started, and how things can change.

Act I, which begins in 1976, depicts now-well-known movie producer Frank in full possession of his shiny, shallow fame. He’s made it big, but sacrificed his original dreams for this brittle victory, losing his real compatriots in the process. Charley has quietly exited his friend’s orbit to produce on his own the thoughtful play both had long envisioned. Mary’s unrequited love for Frank has turned raw; she’s now a brassy drunk, unwelcome at production parties because she can’t shut up.

It’s all the more poignant, then, to visit the finale in Act II, set 20 years earlier, as three young college students, brimming with ideas and unfulfilled promise, meet on their New York City apartment roof to watch a glowing Sputnik glide across the horizon. Frank, Charley and Mary hook fingers and repeat their mantra: “Here’s to us – Who’s like us? – Damn few.”

“It’s our time,” they cry. “We're the movers and we're the shapers/We're the names in tomorrow's papers. …It's our time, breathe it in/Worlds to change and worlds to win/Our turn coming through.” These starry-eyed lyrics have an entirely different impact, performed at the finale, now that we’ve looked ahead.

Sondheim’s songs contain all the hallmarks of his other groundbreaking theater work. Sophisticated and lyrical, sometimes sad, often acerbic and funny, they seem to have a special ability to reach audiences – they are lyrics you just have to listen to.

Adam Berry, Jared Hagan and Trish LaRose as Frank, Charley and Mary, respectively, are simply terrific, with sensational stage voices and star presence in every scene. Rachel O’Malley, as Gussie, is perfect as the talented but self-obsessed beauty who sees a good thing coming, gloms onto Frank and sets his downfall in motion, flattening his hunger to create something real and lasting. Kelly Plescia (as Beth, Frank’s former wife) and Ben Berry (Joe, Gussie’s ex and a famed producer on the downslide) add top voices to the mix, and the whole ensembles rocks. Numbers such as “Old Friends,” “Opening Doors,” “Our Time” and the spectacular “Not a Day Goes By” (a heart-stopper sung by Plescia) are special keepers.

Maura Hanlon is a fine director; and under the auspices of set designer Andrew Licout and projection designer Lisa Renkel staging is dramatic but never overpowering, as photo montages projected onto moveable screens show actual news footage from each era.